Faithbase

The sixth fruit of the Spirit that Paul talks about in Galatians chapter 5 is goodness. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, and goodness. A better translation of that word goodness is the word righteousness, and to understand righteousness is to understand the character of God, the holiness of God. Peter tells us in 2nd Peter that we are to be holy as he is holy, that as believers it should be our goal to be as righteous, as good, as holy as our Heavenly Father is, and you're gonna hear people say all the time, well I'm not perfect, I'm not perfect, I'm not, and we're not. I'm not perfect. Nobody watching this is perfect. Nobody in your church is perfect. No priest, no pastor, nobody's perfect, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't strive for, for the lack of a better term, perfection. Strive for holiness. Strive for righteousness. One, because Jesus died for our sins. He paid an ultimate price for our sin, for our rebellion, our arrogance. However, between you and the Holy Spirit, where that is for you, what sin is, he died for that, and how Scripture defines sin, he died for that. So, we should run from that. Paul says we should become the new man, put off the old man, put off the old things. It's all the things that he describes before he gets into the fruit of the Spirit. Now, all those sins, we need to run from those things. First and foremost, because Christ died for them, to free us from those things. That's what Romans 8 teaches us. But we also need to live lives of righteousness, or goodness, or holiness, because it reflects Jesus back to the world. People see that in us. They see the way we talk. They see the way we treat people. They see the way that we use our resources, our time, our money, our energy, all those things. All that stuff is seen by the world, and it reflects Jesus. So, when Paul tells us that one of the fruits of the Spirit, or fruit of the Spirit, is righteousness, is the goodness, the holiness of God, we need to think about that as a lifestyle. Again, ultimately, because we understand the gospel, we understand what it cost Jesus to forgive us of those things, but as a testimony to the world that he's changed our lives, and that we want to live lives of goodness and righteousness to reflect back his glory to the world. So, I want to encourage you today, really think about your righteousness. Really think about your goodness, your holiness today, and let's be a people that reflect that from the power of the Holy Spirit out into the world, all for the glory of Jesus. Hey, if I can do anything for you, please shoot me a message, let me know. I'd love to be able to pray for you and serve you in any way I can. God bless. Have a great day.